Report Detail:

Extract:

The explosion, which occurred at the Moomba natural gas processing plant in central Australia, erupted a few minutes after a gas leak was detected at 2.45 a.m. on January 1 in the liquids recovery section. The company responsible has blamed a faulty inlet nozzle in the cryogenic heat exchanger. The facility, which is located 750 kilometres north of Adelaide, the South Australia capital, was severely damaged and will not be fully repaired until the end of February.

The most serious incident at Moomba occurred in June 2001, when a maintenance worker was killed and another worker received burns to his neck and hand after a pump exploded in the liquids pumping station.